Asus Eee PC 1015T Review

Video Playback

We tested the Eee PC 1015T with a range of several 1080p h.264 high-definition video clips that were played via HDMI to an external 1080p display. We used the popular VLC (1.1.4) and Media Player Classic - Home Cinema edition with video acceleration enabled.

AMD's UVD2 hardware inside the IGP should accelerate 1080p media without too much help from the CPU and main memory, however with the 1GB of memory we found our higher bitrate clips stuttered notably while the rest played fine. We also found the latest VLC with GPU acceleration was slightly better than MPC-HC as well.

We tested both 1GB and 2GB of ram but it made no difference and curiously we observed the CPU loading 'only' between 75-90 per cent, so there is not just a limitation in CPU - it seems a combination of two or more factors in the system.

Light Gaming

Minecraft

Best Playable Settings:

• Render Distance: Far
  
• Graphics: Fancy

We could easily max out the Minecraft settings and play both multiplayer and single player with them cranked up. This was achievable with both 1GB and 2GB of memory installed.

Despite our earlier assumptions in the VIA Nano Dual-Core preview that the game required a dual-core to avoid lag it doesn't seem the case with the Eee PC 1015T and it certainly puts the more powerful Intel CULV hardware to shame.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Best Playable Settings:

• Resolution: 840 x 400 (1GB) and 1,024 x 600 (2GB)
  
• Graphics Detail: Medium-Low (1GB) and Medium (2GB)
  
• Anti-aliasing: None

With 1GB of memory Modern Warfare 2 was barely playable. Reducing the resolution a notch and turning off one or two of the effects helped minimise the stuttering but whenever something 'new' happened, such as enemies dropping in or an explosion, the game had to call the information from the hard drive instead of main memory, which takes considerably longer. 2GB of memory smoothed everything out much better and we could now max the resolution on the small screen without stutter.

Team Fortress 2

Best Playable Settings:

• Resolution: 1,024 x 600 (2GB)
  
• Graphics Detail: Medium (2GB)
  
• Anisotropic Filtering: Bilinear
  
• Anti-aliasing: None
  
• Reflections: Simple
  
• Multicore Rendering: Enabled

Valve only offers 1,024 x 600 with its Source engine - nothing lower, and with 1GB of ram TF2 is occasionally playable but suffers constant stuttering the same way Modern Warfare 2 does. Upgrading the machine to 2GB of memory helps alleviate this again and we found we could play with medium settings relatively smoothly (although, not using the wireless).